19-Sep-82 11:44 Scott E Fahlman :-)
From: Scott E Fahlman
I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:
:-)
Read it sideways. Actually, it is probably more economical to mark
things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. For this, use
:-(

Scott Fahlman states himself that this may not be the first use of the smiley (or emoticon) symbol, but no recorded evidence of earlier occurrences have been found so far. In any case, Mike Jones and his team have done a great job bringing this piece of communications history to us.